I think that the point DW, FB and SDH discuss above is an important and new perspective...from what I've read, this "reluctance to be perc'd as Guru" was always a very serious concern for Jerry. So, I am inclined to agree that it might have been a developing issue over the years. It is somewhat akin to the equally, if not moreso, compelling component of "touring to support the beast" (ie, the "family" that the DEAD organization had become, req'ing ever increasing piles of $$ to support, which in turn req'd touring all the time to "feed"). Jerry was clearly bothered by this and as many have noted, he often took refuge in the solo efforts to return to his "roots" of just playing in a nonpressurized, low key environment.

On the other hand, the carefree, "WTF? I don't have ANY of the answers so stop asking me!" streak to Jerry's personality (again, IMHO from what I've read), implies that he could have had fun with it as SDH notes, or just been more at peace with saying to himself "I am not gonna take any of this shit seriously!"...meaning, from his early days performing you'd think he might have been better able to handle it all, and thus, have kept up the innocent and informative banter.

EG, I have always loved the Harding Theatre show of Nov, 71, in which Jerry is clearly very amused and even excited to convey his little techno tidbit about folks at home listening on the radio hearing the sound faster than those in the hall...that kind of banter clearly conveys that he is 1) engaged, 2) happy, and 3) interested in letting the crowd in on his factoids...

Well , I don;t know where to jump in, but the fear someone might misconstrue some statement by him, and hurt themselves , or someone one else, or him ( I heard he was really freaked by John Lennon's murder )!As an extra on that JGB dvd from 91 Shoreline, David Kemper tells a story, in which a fan asks Jerry "How's everything"?, and jerry answers "I don't know, I haven't tried everything". And then regretting he said that, " Now he's gonna go a try everything " . So he was keenly aware of the responsibility put on his shoulders, and was careful what he said .Also, he had a sense of humility, both on a personal level, and on a musical level .No matter how much adulation he got, he KNEW he was a fuck up, who couldn't control his habits, or manage his own "family" life . Musically , he knew he was not technically on the level of the greatest players . When he played on Ornette's "Virgin Beauty" album, he said he was really scared, ( it is one thing to play to bunch of forgiving Deadheads, it's another to play for one of the great musical masters) . By the way, a friend of mine asked Ornette how did he like Jerry's contribution to the album, he said "it was perfect, exactly what he wanted " . He kept learning and musically growing, till the day he died . He was not a prophet, or God itself, and preferred to let the music do the talking .

Good pts; in a way, he was caught in the paradox of in many ways embracing an almost anarchist perspective on society and acceptance of having achieved a status that entailed a great deal of responsibility, whether you wanted it or not (eg, to the "family/band" in a financial sense, even to the public, etc.). He defn was humble about his playing; most defn comes thru in all I have heard him say about things in that respect.